Talk of Breaking up the Facebook Monopoly Heats Up but What About the Other Monopolies out There?

Since the news hit the stands about Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, stated in a New York Times Op-Ed that Facebook should be broken up – everybody in the tech world has had something to say about it.

Not Just Facebook

While generally avoiding the ‘flavor of the day’ I couldn’t help myself this time around. Mainly though, I’d prefer to point out how damaging monopolies have been to our society in the last couple decades and ask why is it that their continued existence has been allowed?

Some of my least favorite tech companies such as Comcast and Verizon have been allowed to exist as (at least regional) monopolies for decades, resulting in little to no choice for consumers and stamping out potential competitors.

And let’s not even start talking about the big banks… you know, there was that entire housing crisis caused by them. American taxpayers bailed them out – the government pretended to play hardball, but really didn’t.

I’m not advocating for leaving Facebook to their own devices, but if we’re gonna consider breaking them up because they’re a dangerous monopoly, then the big banks, oil companies, and communications providers deserve that same consideration.